Letter From the Front

Like I often do when I write, I've thoroughly explored the thoughts of the characters in this story, which means it's fairly long. There is consenting sex, but it takes a while to get there. In other words, this is not a quick-jerk story. If that's what you are looking for, this probably won't be your style. It is a soft and gentle look at a very unusual request, and how that request was handled.

As always, my stories are complete works of fiction, and all persons are of legal age. Your votes and comments are important to me, so after you read it, please share with me!

It was a day just like any other -- a normal Friday in the normal life of a normal man. I pulled in the driveway after working all day in the same factory I'd worked for 25 years. There was very little advancement possible, but the money paid the bills and allowed me and my wife some of life's pleasures. We certainly weren't rich. The car I was driving had well over 100,000 miles on it. But it got me to work and back Monday through Friday, and I really didn't need more.

My wife Janelle would have come home about thirty minutes before me from her job as an English teacher at a suburban high school. Again, not much chance for advancement, but she loved her job, and in particular hearing from former students who had done well in life and given her partial credit for their success. She's a very particular teacher, working hard to draw the best from her students. She teaches because she loves kids, and I don't see that stopping anytime soon.

So we really were your average couple with an average income heading into an average retirement in less than twenty years. Her state retirement and the program that I had with my job meant that we would be able to enjoy our golden years together without too many financial worries, and while I didn't dwell on retirement time at all, I knew it was a good goal which helped keep my normal life focused.

I walked in the door of our 3-bedroom home and hung up my jacket. Janelle came out of the kitchen and greeted me with a kiss. She's still beautiful to me even though we've both gained more than a few pounds since we first met as college juniors. It hadn't taken me long to fall really hard for her, and I was lucky that she felt the same way. We had gotten married as soon as we received our degrees -- right before she started teaching and I started at the factory. I love her more now than I did then, if that is possible. I couldn't imagine spending the rest of my life with anybody else.

We had the usual small talk about our day and what was for supper, the kind of boring married talk that I love. I headed back to our bedroom to change out of my work clothes and into something more comfortable for our relaxed evening ahead. When I returned, I sat in my recliner and put my feet up. Janelle came back into the living room and smiled at me, telling me that the mail was on the lamp table between our two chairs.

Sometimes I would wait until after supper to check for bills and unwanted advertisements, but before she slipped back into the kitchen, Janelle stopped and looked at me. "There's a letter for you from Jason. Has he sent you any letters before?"

That statement got my attention, and my mind shifted gears. Jason was our son-in-law, married to our only daughter Denise for two years. He was on active duty in the Army, and was currently deployed in the middle east, performing what he would only tell us were "peacekeeping missions." He was an outstanding young man, following in a long line of relatives who had all served proudly. His plan was to do his duty for our country for a few years, hoping the skills he learned in the Army could be put to use in the job market when he was ready to retire from the military.

Janelle was right -- Jason had never sent me a letter before at any time, whether deployed or not. Several different scenarios went through my mind as I looked through the stack of junk to find the letter, and none of them were very good. Had he been injured and wanted me to tell Denise instead of hearing it from someone in the military? Was it something that he'd already shared with Denise and she didn't feel like she could tell me so he was telling me in a letter? The possibilities in my mind were becoming far-fetched before I could open the envelope.

It was larger than a regular envelope, with all kinds of stamping that I guess was from being sent from a military unit. I carefully tore it open and pulled out the contents. Inside were two items -- one was a handwritten letter, and the other a smaller enveloped with the words, "Do Not Open" printed in large letters along the front.

I looked at the letter and saw that it was indeed from Jason and was indeed addressed to me. I opened it slowly and focused my eyes on the rather sloppy handwriting, which made me wonder if it was written somewhere out in the field:

Dear Dad -- (I had told Jason early on that it was fine to call me David, my given name. But once the wedding ceremony was over, he had dropped that, and I'd been "Dad" ever since) I know that it probably seems strange to receive a letter from me. I want to assure you that things are fine here, although certainly hectic most of the time. We are always keeping eyes out for surprise attacks, but I'm with a good team and we watch each other's back 24/7.

I'm writing because I'm worried about Denise. (With this, I stopped reading and thought about my beautiful daughter, our one and only child. As normal as Janelle and I were, she had inherited all of those genes. She wasn't super-model beautiful, but she was pretty and very attractive with no real outstanding features. She didn't qualify for any college academic scholarships, but she was worldly, the kind of young adult that you knew was going to be fine in life.

She had met Jason while working as a waitress to earn some spending money while she was in college since it was all her mother and I could do to pay the tuition, room and board. She was a great waitress because she had a shining personality, and one evening Jason and some of his friends had come into the restaurant where she worked and they had hit it off, to the point where he wrote his phone number on his bill [and left a large tip as well]. She had called him, and soon they were best friends, and we were thrilled to learn that they were engaged shortly after she had accepted his proposal.

The greatest thing in the world to happen to me was marrying Janelle, until I laid eyes on my daughter on the day she was born. I was hooked that instant, and pledged my life to do whatever I could to make hers better. I made sure to try and be at every dance recital and school program and concert and anything else where Denise was involved. Once in school, she and I would go through her backpack every night to see what homework she might have and to see how she had done on tests and papers in class. We remain extremely close to this day, and while I was a little sad to lose some of the attention when Jason came along, I knew he was a fine young man and I was pleased that the two of them were wonderful together.

I went back to the letter...) Our separation due to my deployment is very difficult on her. She misses us being together, but she also misses our intimate time together. You may not want to hear this, but we have a VERY good sex life, so I know that going from that to nothing at all is driving her crazy. I want to help her, but the only way I can do that is give her permission to have other men at home while I'm over here, and I imagine you understand how that's not a very desirable solution for me.

There is, however, one possible solution, but it's something that is so strange and bizarre that I'm not sure it should ever be brought up. I trust that you understand I'm only thinking of Denise when I suggest this. If I could find her a man that could give her what she needs but not be any threat to me or my marriage, I would do it in an instant. But it would have to be someone that I know so very well that I would be assured he would not make a huge mess of an awkward situation.

That man is you, David. I know how much you love your daughter, and I know that she loves you. I doubt you've ever had any sexual feelings for her, because most men would never think of that with their own daughters. I will tell you that Denise and I have roleplayed this scenario many times, and I don't know if she's actually thinking of you when we do, but it's usually some of our most passionate and intense lovemaking.

David, I know that if you do this, she won't divorce me for you. I know that you won't abuse her, or take advantage of a girl with sexual needs. I know that I'll come home to a happier wife, knowing that a man that loves her as much as I do has been gentle and loving with her. I know that if you do this, you'll do it because you love her and want to take care of her just like you always have.

I have not told anybody else about this. Even Denise does not know I'm writing this letter. By now you have found an envelope that says "Do Not Open." That letter is for her. If you agree to this, I'm asking you to go see her and take that letter and let her open and read it before you discuss this. It's basically telling her what I'm telling you now, encouraging her to consider this -- that is, if you agree first.

If you don't want to do this, simply tear up the unopened envelope and throw it away. Denise will not have to know I suggested this to you. I'm leaving it up to you as to whether you tell Mom about this, but I have a feeling your relationship is one where there are no secrets, so if you tell her and she objects, I'll understand that as well.

I know this is probably the strangest request that has ever been made of you. I would not have suggested this if I didn't think you would be perfect for the role. Whatever you decide, please understand that my respect for you is so great that I felt safe in making this suggestion, and I will not think any less of you, no matter what you decide.

Even if you don't go ahead with this, please at least give Denise a kiss for me and tell her that I love her.

Jason

I sat there, mouth open, and stared at the last few paragraphs until my eyes blurred and I couldn't see them anymore. I blinked a few times and reread the entire letter, paying closer attention to the words on the page to make sure I wasn't reading something into the letter that wasn't actually there. But no, it was plain to see what he was asking me to do, and he was right -- it was the strangest request that had ever been made of me.

My state of shock was partially broken by Janelle's raised voice in the kitchen. "Did you open the letter from Jason? What did he want?"

Jason had been right about that. There was no way I was going to try to hide this from Janelle. As far as I knew, there were no secrets between us, unless she had done something behind my back. I truly believed we loved each other enough that we knew neither wanted to hurt the other in any way. We had survived those tough years of raising our daughter with a brand new mortgage on a nice house to want to see any pain caused for the other one.

I had no desire to spring this on her, so I felt the best way for her to find out was to read the letter herself. When I didn't reply to her question, she came into the living room to see if I was okay, and she could tell that I wasn't. That sent her into worrying that something had happened to Jason, similar to what my initial thoughts had been.

"David, is he okay? What did the letter say?"

I paused, and then looked up at her and said, "He's fine -- he's worried about Denise. I think you need to read the letter for yourself. I'm not sure I could explain it the way he did."

She ducked back into the kitchen, and then returned a few seconds later. Taking her place in her chair beside me, she sat back as I handed her the letter, and waited for her reaction. From the amount of time she was spending reading and re-reading the letter, I think it was fair to assume that her reaction was fairly similar to my own.

Finally she looked up at me. "What the hell is this?" she asked incredulously.

I shrugged my shoulders. "You read it just like I did. I had no idea what he wanted from me beforehand. I'm still not sure what to think of it. As her parents, of course we should be shocked. Normal parents don't have sex with their children. But I'm still not sure I'm able to rationally think about it yet."

I'm not sure she was listening, because she was back to reading the letter again, as if some divine intervention would magically pop out of the words and explain all of this to her. Finding none, she looked up at me again.

"You couldn't do this even if you wanted to....could you?"

I shrugged again. "I don't know," I replied, "because I've never had a single sexual thought about Denise in my life. So for me to start thinking about her that way -- well, it's just not going to happen immediately."

Janelle sighed. "I guess that's good to hear, not that I ever thought you would. But still...I mean you haven't totally said 'no' yet, so does that mean you're possibly thinking about it?"

The slope was starting to get a bit slippery with that response. "Look, Janelle, I'm not suddenly going to turn into an incestuous pervert just because my son-in-law wants me to take care of the sexual needs of his wife, who just happens to be my daughter. But by now, Jason should know Denise better than anybody else, and I would think he has put a tremendous amount of thought into this to risk our relationship by even suggesting it. So I guess a part of me thinks maybe we should at least honor that."

Janelle looked back down at the letter. I really had no idea where this was going, but the longer she studied the words of her son-in-law, the more I thought maybe she was consider it as well.

"So was the secret letter in the envelope like he said?"

I grabbed it and held it up for her to see.

She sighed. "I sure would like to know what he said to her. How do you write that letter to your wife? 'My sweet love, I know that you are frustrated right now, so your father has come over to take care of your sexual needs while I am away defending freedom overseas.' Do you think you could have written that letter to my father?"

The image of Janelle having sex with her dad flashed into my mind, and I quickly realized I never wanted to think about that again. But I knew we were talking about two different scenarios here. "No, of course not, but then after we got married, we were never really apart for long periods of time like Jason has been away from Denise. Our longest was probably about a week. And even if it had been longer, you knew that there was nobody better at taking care of you sexually than me!"

Janelle looked over at me and smirked. "Don't flatter yourself, big boy. Yes, you are clearly my sexual equal, and there's never been any reason for me to look anywhere else. But I can see where Jason and Denise could be struggling. I could see how any couple who is apart for long periods of time could struggle."

I tried to put myself in Jason's shoes. When I thought back to when Janelle and I had been married for two years, and then imagined being away from her for months, I could see how that would have been extremely difficult for both of us. What I could not see was writing her dad a letter, asking him to go take care of her sexual needs. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if that thought had crossed my mind, I could not think of any other male on the planet that I would have wanted fucking my young wife.

Janelle brought me back to the present. "C'mon, let's go eat. Supper is getting cold while we sit out here and talk about this." She grabbed the letter and walked into the kitchen and I followed her. She had put a taco salad together, and though we both usually enjoy that dish, the tension in the room was so thick that I barely tasted the savory meal. We said very little, because I think we both didn't know what to say. It was a request we could have never dreamed of on our own, so how do you prepare for something like that?

What I did find peculiar in the silence was that neither of us had firmly decided that this wasn't going to happen, and the matter should be dropped in that instant. I thought about that from my viewpoint -- by not refusing, did that mean that I wanted to have sex with my daughter? Was I thinking of myself as I considered this request, or was I really thinking of her well-being as I pondered?

I also tried to think about this from Janelle's silence. Was she having the same thoughts as me? She knows that Denise and I are very close, but she also knows that's not because of a sexual fascination we have with each other, so I figured if she was considering agreeing to this, it was because she knew how close I was to my daughter. If she thought that I felt it was in Denise's best interest to have her dad be a sex surrogate while her husband was defending freedom overseas, I could see where she might understand why I hadn't put a stop to this yet.

And then I thought about Denise. It was a little creepy reading the part of Jason's letter where he admitted they had roleplayed a "daddy" scene before, and usually resulted in extremely passionate sex. Jason was a strong young man with an above average intelligence, so maybe Denise saw some of his qualities and felt they matched up to some of mine as she was growing up, and that created part of her attraction to him. But that didn't necessarily mean she wanted to have sex with me just because they had played daddy games together.

I couldn't imagine how Denise would react if I took Jason's letter to her. Would I stay and wait for her reaction as she read it, or would I leave and then let her call me if she wanted to explore this? Would she try to talk to Jason before she made any decision? She's a pretty smart young woman, and I could see her making sure Jason did indeed send this letter and not some practical joke from one of his buddies in his outfit.

Janelle finished her meal and took her plate to the sink to rinse. I looked down at mine, and realize I hadn't even eaten half of what I started with. I had lost my appetite, so I took my plate and scooped what remained into the garbage. Janelle watched me as I scraped the plate clean, and said, "Was something wrong with it?"

I chuckled and replied, "No, it was fine -- well, at least I think it was fine. I guess my mind is a little distracted, because I don't remember eating too much of it."

She took the plate out of my hands and rinsed it, before putting it and her own plate in the dishwasher. I stood and watched her while she worked, and as she bent over to load the plates. She was still sexy to me, and while we don't fuck as often as newlyweds anymore, I don't think either of us was complaining about our reduced frequency. In fact, when Denise headed to college, we had a bit of a sexual awakening, being able to enjoy the beginnings of the empty nest phase of our life and not having to worry about being quiet around her.

Janelle glanced up as she put the plates in the dishwasher and saw me staring at her shapely ass. She stood up and smiled as she said, "I know what you're thinking about. Let's go sit in the living room and talk about this."

We shuffled out of the kitchen and I headed to my chair, but she redirected me to sit on the couch so she could sit closer to me. She held up the letter again, but I didn't need to read it anymore. I doubt I would ever forget the words printed on that piece of paper.

Janelle rubbed her hand on my leg. "Shall we try to figure this out? How about a list of why you should and why you shouldn't? Do you want to start first?"